Hawks stay rolling with victory in Portland
Photo Credit: ESPN.com
The Atlanta Hawks added another impressive win to their resume, going into Portland and defeating the Trail Blazers on Saturday night, 115-107. Paul Millsap led seven Hawks in double figures with 27 points.
Jeff Teague added 22 points and six assists as Atlanta shot 51.2 percent from the field. Thabo Sefolosha had a double-double off the bench with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
The Hawks’ scoring barrage was enough to withstand 30 points and 12 rebounds from Blazers star LaMarcus Aldridge. Damian Lillard had 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, but he shot just 7-of-18 from the field.
Atlanta’s victory was its fourth in a row and ninth in 10 games. During that span, the Hawks beat the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers (x2), Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers and Milwaukee Bucks in addition to the win in Portland. So that’s eight wins against teams currently in the playoff picture in 10 games. The lone victory over a non-playoff team was against the Utah Jazz, who had just won three of their last four games.
Stretching this hot streak out even further, Atlanta is 20-3 in its last 23 games since starting the season 5-5. That blazing stretch has the Hawks on top of the Eastern Conference with a record of 25-8, one game ahead of the Toronto Raptors. The Bulls are lurking just 1.5 games out, and they have also won nine of 10 games.
Atlanta has used great balance to get to where they are in the standings. Both the offense and defense are ranked in the top 10 in terms of efficiency, and absent a bona fide star player, the scoring load has been spread out throughout the roster.
Teague is having a career-year and leads the team in scoring at 17.3 points per game. Millsap isn’t far behind at 17.0 points per game. All three other Hawks starters are averaging double-digit points, with Al Horford at 14.5 points per game, Kyle Korver at 12.9 points per game and DeMarre Carroll at 11.4 points per game.
The last time I wrote about this Hawks team, I asked whether they were a legitimate contender in the East. As the sample size gets bigger and bigger and the impressive wins continue to pile up, it’s nearly impossible to say they aren’t one.
At the time of that writing just before Christmas, Atlanta had the fifth-best odds to win the East. That remains the same now, but the odds have gone from 20/1 to 10/1, according to VegasInsider.com. The Hawks’ odds to win the 2015 NBA title have also greatly improved over the last few weeks, going from 50/1 all the way to 28/1.
People are clearly starting to believe in Atlanta, and there’s little reason to believe much will change. It would still be a stretch to call the Hawks the favorite in the East, but if they keep this type of play up, perhaps we get to a point where that wouldn’t be a crazy thing to say. So much credit goes to head coach Mike Budenholzer, who should be a top contender for Coach of the Year.
